Big Changes to Canada/EU flights and airline ownership

Sounds very similar to the "Open Skies" agreement the US and EU signed a few years ago. I suspect the effects will be similar.

Canada has begun free trade talks with the EU. The news is about 6 months old now, and I haven't heard anything since. These things take years, so we might get more announcements like this airline news over the next few months and years.

Yes, Peter, is it like the open skies agreement between the US and the EU but with one big difference.

Canada has opened up airline ownership to non Canadian countries. The U.S. has not. (Richard Branson is dying to legally run an airline in the U.S. As it is now, he's a minority shareholder in Virgin America.)

Branson aside I still think the results will be similar.

We might see some consolidation but I can't see a massive rush to buy out the competition, especially with the current economic climate. Just like with the EU/US agreement the ability to open new routes will be constrained by the availability of airport slots. I'm sure they'll be some horse trading, a few routes will change and they'll be some new faces on a few routes just like happened after 2007.

I predict a few changes but nothing too radical, I may well be wrong, only time will tell.

Frank II,

Thanks for posting that! I had heard some rumors about this a few months ago, but wasn't sure if the agreement was signed yet.

When European carriers start offering service to/from Canada, there will probably be some good deals initially, but with the current economic climate I doubt whether they'll be able to sustain low pricing. I heard one report yesterday that indicated that the airline industry (globally) is expected to lose over $6 billion in 2010, so they probably won't be able to offer many "deals".

The local international airport in this area (tenth busiest in Canada) spent a considerable amount of money last year lengthening the runway to accomodate larger jets from Europe. They "tested" the new runway a few months ago by landing an Antonov from Russia (over 5K people showed up at 05:30 AM to watch the plane land). Rumors at the time indicated that perhaps Zoom would add one stop between Vancouver and Europe, however that didn't work out. I'm hoping this will at least result in a greater range of flight choices (even if the prices aren't much cheaper).

Cheers!

Ken: Not sure how long ago your comment relates to. Zoom went under at the end of August 2008. I was on their last flight from Calgary to Gatwick!

Iain,

Perhaps my memory is a bit "foggy" on the exact dates, but I do recall seeing reference to Kelowna Airport on the Zoom website (before they went bankrupt).

It's a shame that they couldn't succeed, as I travelled with Zoom a couple of times, and found the service to be good.

Hope it's warmed up a bit in Edmonton. The news last week indicated that it was the coldest spot in Canada, at -46C (-59C with the wind chill). That's too cold for me!

Cheers!